Serial child rapist sentenced to 100 years in prison

Flathead District Court Judge Robert Allison on Thursday granted a serial child rapist’s request to be sent to prison for the rest of his life.

Jason Dean Franks, 46, of Kalispell was sentenced to 100 years in prison for raping an 11-year-old girl in March 2007 at her father’s home.

Franks can only be paroled if he agrees to complete two sex offender treatment programs that require him to admit guilt and agrees to take drugs that reduce his sex drive.

“I do believe you are responsible and it is my hope that you do at some point accept responsibility,” Allison said.

His victim provided a pointed sentencing recommendation to Allison.

“He deserves to spend the rest of his miserable life in prison,” she said.

After that life term, the woman said she hoped Franks continued to suffer.

“Jason Franks, enjoy hell,” she said.

Franks fired his attorney just before the sentencing hearing despite a warning from Allison that it might not be the wisest decision. Franks then maintained his innocence and requested that the court sentence him to life without parole because he would not participate in the guilt-admission portion of sex offender treatment.

“There is no responsibility I will take for this crime,” Franks said. “I’m not asking to be paroled... I have no need to be accused of this ever again.”

Franks swore to God that he did not commit the crime.

“I forgive you,” Franks said. “I forgive each and every one of you for this.”

Franks’ unrepentant behavior was eerily predictable, prosecutor Travis Ahner noted, as he read from a sex offender evaluation completed when Franks was convicted in 1993 of having sex twice with a 12-year-old girl.

The evaluator noted that Franks was a self-serving liar who projected the blame for his crime on his victims and was likely to re-offend.

Franks also was convicted of failing to register as a sex offender in 2006, Ahner noted. Franks previously was convicted of unlawful transactions with children for providing an underage girl alcohol.

Franks was acquitted in 2011 of sexual abuse charges after he was accused of molesting a 5-year-old boy, but in the process of the case, Ahner learned that one other person claimed Franks had raped her when she was 11 and he was 20.

“This is a long list of individuals who have said Mr. Franks assaulted them,” Ahner said.

The Montana Supreme Court reversed a previous conviction in the most recent sex abuse case after prosecutors introduced information about Franks’ prior record and said it prejudiced the jury against him.

A jury convicted him again in February, nearly a decade after the crime occurred, without the information about the prior crimes.

Since the conviction, Franks behaved badly in jail and allegedly smashed a cup in his cell. He stored two of the larger shards under his mattress, Ahner said. He waved another large shard at jail staff and threatened to kill detention officers before he was stunned with a Taser, Ahner said.

The victim told Franks on Thursday that he has been a darkness in her life that has followed her around, making her unable to trust people.

“My piece of mind left me at age 11,” the victim testified.

She called Franks a number of names including a crook, liar, monster, scum and waste of space, but noted that none of them seemed adequate to describe the rapist.

Reporter Megan Strickland can be reached at 758-4459 or mstrickland@dailyinterlake.com.